Apocalypse Destiny
by RaistlinofMetallica
Summary: What if you lost everything you had ever known? And what if, in discovering your past, you discovered your destiny was to destory Krynn? edited, notes moved to homepage


Apocalypse Destiny

By RaistlinofMetallica

* * *

Blanket disclaimer: Anything you recognize, except for my OCs and the plot, I don't own. I do this for fun and absolutely no profit.

* * *

_Sonata for a Wanderer Part 1_

I have watched...

The turning seasons

The whispering of a thousand changes

The world changing... evolution

I have watched...

The darkness rise

The light chasing dark

The three moons giggling as the children they are... eternally

I have watched...

The heroes exalted

And fall from grace

With the same eerie elegance that had risen them on high... descending

I have seen

That apocalypse that was Cataclysm

The Chaos of the stars

The burning wheel of fire... conflagration

I cradled...

The heavens in my arms

The newborn gods from the cosmic cauldron

The dragons and godlings on the Great Tree... living

In my journey to the beginning

I met the end

The dark-light goddess

Of ultimate destruction

And she showed me...

The endless paths of life

The infinite doors of worlds

The lives to come and pass... balance

I saw...

The self within her

The sleeper that has yet to awaken

The life that came before... rebirth

Then she opened a tiny door...

A pocket in space

A time which has come and gone

But has never arrived... yet

And I saw...

A new adventure

A new day

A new hero

* * *

The teenaged boy sat alone in the dirt path with a dazed expression on his face. His short black hair was dusty and he sported a rather large bruise on his forehead. He was dressed in simple but obviously expensive clothing. His blue tunic was satin and seemed shredded in places by some sort of scuffle. His deerskin pants were in the same condition. 

Footprints littered the ground in all directions. The boy looked at them curiously with his odd purple eyes and grabbed his head as a wave of dizziness swept over him. He focused on the sparrows chirping and the tiny titmice shrilly chattering in the forest all around him.

Nearby, a twig snapped. He brought his head up. "Is some one there?"

"Yes," replied a soft feminine voice. "I was picking some flowers and roots when I saw you there. You looked hurt."

He turned slowly towards the voice. "I don't know."

"Let me see," the voice said with a hint of laughter. A delicate pink foot stepped onto the path, followed by another. Her bare feet looked very tiny. He followed the slope of her ankles up to her knees and then over her body. Her entire body was slender, but it was well proportioned and not lacking in attractiveness. Her face was as fine as bird's bones with smooth defined cheekbones and almond shaped eyes. Her eyebrows were elegantly thin and her ears were finely rounded. Her hair fell in amber waves down to her waist, shimmering and curling like a honey colored waterfall. Her eyes were as her hair: deep amber reflecting pools with tiny golden flecks that glinted in the sunlight.

"Oh! What an awful bruise!" she exclaimed as he stared at her, transfixed. She put down her wicker basket and kneeled in front of him. She raised a corner of her plain white apron to his forehead and gently dabbed his bruise. She then wiped off his face and examined it once more. "You must have been hit pretty hard," she sighed, looking over the bruise with pity.

He blinked, trying to recall what happened. Nothing but darkness came to mind. "I guess so."

"You should come back to my house," she said as she stood and brushed the dust off her knees. She then wiped her hands on her apron and picked up her basket. "I can fix you up right-quick."

The boy stammered, "I- I... I'm not sure I should."

"I don't bite," she said with a flirting wink. With that, she turned around and walked up onto the raised ground from which she had appeared. He watched her step delicately onto a rock in her blue-and-white checkered dress as he slowly raised himself to his feet.

He blushed suddenly and stepped closer to where she stood. "What is your name?"

"Ambergeuse," she replied with a graceful pirouette and a leap on to the next rock.

The boy searched his mind for his name. It popped out of nowhere, faint and almost insubstantial. "Fen. Fen Rin."

"That's cute," she giggled as she led him further from the path and deeper into the forest. She skipped and hopped through the woods while he stumbled behind her, unused to the forest.

Their destination was a small log cabin with a thatched roof and a stone chimney. It seemed strangely right where it should be. A tiny garden grew in front of the home; guarded by a little white picket fence and a rather large looking crow. The bird squawked once at them and then flew into the trees with a seemingly indignant air.

"This is where I stay," Ambergeuse said with dashing smile as she indicated the door. "Go on in, Fen."

He smiled politely and opened the door. "Ladies first, my dear."

"You're teasing," she chided in a singsong voice as she passed by him.

He smile blossomed into a generous grin of humor as he then entered, closing the door behind him. "This place is cozy."

"Yes, I think so," she said, placing her gathered flora on the small table. Using a tiny knife she began cutting and trimming them. "There's a pond out back and a bucket by the door, if you want to get cleaned up."

Fen sighed wearily and pulled off his satin tunic. Leaving it draped over the back of a chair, he grabbed the bucket and went to the rear of the cabin. Indeed, there was a crystalline pond there. Gold and silver fish darted through the rushes, racing past little newts and frogs. Next to the pond, a small railing of woven sticks held aloft a sun-dried white towel. He must have landed in the most beautiful place on the planet.

* * *

Within a week, Fen and Ambergeuse had become the best of friends. They had become inseparable, their small adventures within the forest binding them ever tighter. They chased bugbears with sticks and danced with foxes in the light of the moon. Their adventures were secret to all the world but themselves. They laughed and skipped on moonbeam minnows, feet under liquid light. This night, however, was plagued with storm. The thunder rumbled in a deep baritone of the desert dragons of lightning. The lightning crackled and sparked, glowing and filling the sky with light. 

"Are you scared, Ambergeuse?" asked Fen, looking up at her from the chess game they were playing. He moved a pawn forward.

The girl giggled and pushed forward her rook. "Not really. Are you?"

"No," he said with a slight smile. He looked out of one of the small windows, watching the rivulets of moisture pounding down the glass. "Oddly, these storms are calming to me." He moved forward another pawn, to flank his earlier advance.

His opponent flashed him a bright grin and captured his first pawn. She examined the pawn briefly, fingering the black lacquer. "Do you know why?"

"No," Fen frowned slightly. "I don't."

The door shuddered suddenly with the force of heavy pounding. "Who could that be?" Ambergeuse wondered aloud as she pushed herself to her feet. She approached the door. "Hello? Who's there?"

"I'm looking for someone!" shouted a desperate male voice. "He went missing last week!"

A bolt of lightning illuminated the woman's face, her mouth drawn in a firm line and her face seemingly colorless. The image vanished as quickly as it had come, allowing her to reach for the doorknob. "All right. Come in."

"Thank you, dear woman," said the man, stepping in with a hooded cloak pulled low around him. He pulled back his hood and shook out his dirty blonde hair. He was heavily muscled with broad shoulders and odd magical symbols on his forearms. He was wearing a decorated blue tunic and blue pants with dark boots.

Ambergeuse shut the door quietly. "You are welcome. You shouldn't travel in this weather. There are dragons."

"Who are you looking for?" Fen asked, staring at the stranger with curiosity.

The stranger turned from the maiden and his jaw dropped in surprise. "You..."

"Huh?" the boy asked, looking confused.

The man smiled and started forward. "Zaccaria!"

"Who? Me?" asked the black-haired boy. "I'm Fen Rin."

The man laughed, "Don't kid me, my dearest Zaccaria! It's me, Silt!"

"I don't know anyone except Ambergeuse," the boy replied, shaking his head. "I met her after getting a bump on my head."

Silt paled and looked at the woman. "What happened to him?"

She glared at him, her eyes growing cold. "I found him and fixed him up last week. He had been hit pretty badly."

"I am sorry, but I don't know who you are," Fen said, a polite smile on his lips.

The stranger shook his head with a moan. "This can't be true. It can't be!" In a frightened state, the man grabbed the boy's shoulders and began to shake him. "Zaccaria! Please remember! I beg you!"

"Stop!" shouted the teenager. "You're hurting me!"

Realizing this, Silt stopped shaking him and backed away. There were tears in his eyes as he turned towards the window to calm himself. "I don't believe this."

Ambergeuse looked at the stranger with concern. "I believe it is called amnesia."

"Amnesia?" the boy said with wonder. His heart began to pound. A painful constriction across his chest widened his eyes with fear.

_The galaxies wheeled in endless circles, spiraling outwards and in again as they journeyed. He flew gracefully deep into the heart of a galaxy, towards a shining bright star that held a mystical light._

Fen screamed in pain and clutched his chest as he pitched forward, knocking over the table and scattering the chess pieces. He squeezed his eyes shut as the flashes of visions came to him.

_He was floating above an alien world. Silver strands of light shot back and forth from the planet and its single moon._

Silt turned around in alarm. "Zaccaria!"

Ambergeuse rushed to the boy and threw her arms around him, supporting him with her embrace. "He's remembering!" she hissed.

_A white fire engulfed him, pain tearing through his body. This painful light shred his body into nothingness._

"It burns!" he screamed in pain again and then collapsed into her arms, unconscious.

Then, the stranger stepped forward, "Give him to me, woman. He is mine to care for."

"No," she replied, stroking the boy's short black hair with her slender fingers. "Your care has been noted and dismissed. He is no longer yours."

Silt roared in fury, lightning crackling in his eyes and between his teeth. "Foolish bitch! What right do you have?"

Ambergeuse narrowed her amber eyes at him and a great white light exploded around her until the room was consumed in the blinding light. The light quickly faded, leaving a dazed and half-blinded Silt sitting alone on the floor with no sign of either woman or boy.

* * *

Fen was floating in an endless void of darkness, voices echoing around him in the emptiness. Tiny sparkles of light appeared, speckling the darkness. He realized these were stars. 

"Fen," whispered a woman's voice.

He turned towards the sound and saw Ambergeuse. Her eyes were shadowed and she stood alone, holding her hands beneath her chin. She then faded, revealing an orb of sapphire, tiger's eye and emerald. A pale ball circled it. He approached the floating orb and reached for it.

"That's Krynn," said a man's voice. "Where you are hidden."

The boy shuddered and looked around in fear before reaching for the large orb. His fingertips lightly brushed against cool swirling clouds and then touched a rough mountain range. Suddenly, the planet began to shake and tremble, cracks running all through it.

Fen floated back into the darkness, "Tell me what's wrong!"

"Look at her, the beautiful planet Krynn. The suffering at the moment of destruction is so beautiful," said the voice again.

He turned and watched with horror as the planet exploded. Then, it was the planet no more! Ambergeuse lay motionless, blood tracing across her face. Her eyes were slowly losing their light and her body was pockmarked with bloody wounds. He fell to his knees and choked out, "Why?"

"Because Krynn harbored you. Because this is your destiny." The voice was close to him, behind him.

The boy shouted, "I won't let you!"

"I didn't kill Krynn. You did."

Fen screamed in horror, grabbing his head. Light burst in his eyes and he was blinded.

* * *

Ambergeuse was sitting over him, dabbing a damp cloth on his forehead. "Welcome back, Fen Rin. You've been unconscious for some time." 

"Who are you?" he asked, looking into her deep amber eyes. "What are you?"

She pulled her hand away sadly and looked out the small window in the small room. "So, you've become aware that I am not human."

"Yes," he said, nodding. Sounds drifted out from under the door: laughing, singing, crashes and swearing. The smell of roasting potatoes, ale, and dust swirled up and under the door.

She sighed and wrung out the cloth into a ceramic bowl. "I am Amber. I am form given to dust."

"You are Krynn," Fen said sadly. "You're dying."

The woman sighed and placed the cloth on his head once more. "All things die. Even the planets, gods and stars."

"You can't die! If you die, we all die!" the boy protested.

She smiled very softly. "I am destined to... and very soon."

"Why?" he begged, looking at her with pleading eyes.

She traced her fingers over his beautiful face, her fingers like butterfly kisses against his skin. "Because you're here."

"I kill you?" he wondered aloud.

She touched his chin and tilted it up towards her. "Your true self does."

"How do I stop this?" he pleaded. "Please!"

She leaned her head forward, her forehead against his. "Only the Book of Apocalypse can stop the Death God," she whispered, rubbing her nose against his. "Or if you kill yourself so the Death God won't awaken."

"I can't do that," the boy sighed with sadness in his eyes. "I will find the book."

Amber drew herself up so that she was sitting up on her knees. "It's too late," she cooed, stroking his face with her hands. "It's too late," she repeated, catching his face. She leaned down and kissed him firmly on the mouth. Quickly, she drew away and shoved him back. "Go," she said coldly. "Silt is looking for you. He will impede your task. I will stall him. Go!"

"I don't want this destiny," Fen said, getting to his feet.

The woman smiled. "You're a fighter. You'll make it change."

"Where is the book?" he asked, turning towards the door.

She lifted her head to the window. "The basement of the Palanthas Library. Under the stone with the red sword cross on it."

"Thank you, Amber," he said, with a sad smile. "I hope I can change our fate."

Ambergeuse sighed. "The name I took, Fen... It is a fixative."

Fen sighed with great sadness and left, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Silt was stalking the streets of Palanthas with furious intent. His boss was upset with him for being beaten by a peasant woman and he was upset with himself for not noticing that she was not normal. Magic like hers should have been drained away by the trapped souls of the dead. But she was immensely strong. How could a woman have had so much power in her and not seen him for what he was? 

"Looking for Zaccaria?" a woman's voice stung him in the ears.

The man whipped around. "You!" he spat.

"Too bad." The amber-haired woman stood against the side of a tavern, her shining eyes regarding him. She smiled darkly, "He is gone. Only Fen Rin remains."

He regarded her with anger. "Bitch, do you know to whom you talk?"

"Do you know who that boy you're screwing is?" she retorted, a wicked grin spreading across her face.

The man paled. "How do you know that he and I are lovers?"

"Not anymore," she said, touching his face lightly like spider's feet. "He is no longer the one you loved."

Silt backed away from her slowly, horror growing. "What in the abyss are you?"

"Good question," she smiled with a terrible amusement. "I'm the fixer of your lover's fate. He will do the right thing and die."

He grabbed her by the shoulders, knowing that he still was physically stronger than she was. "Why do you want him dead?"

"There is no other way to save Krynn," she laughed eerily. "Even now, he's at the Library where he will find the book that will bring the end of existence or the end of his life!"

The man let out a strangled shriek and dropped her like a hot coal. He ran towards the Great Library, the maniacal laughter of the odd woman ringing in his ears.

* * *

Fen crept past the dozing librarians and down the curving stairs to the basement vaults. The vast empty space beneath the library was well lit with magical light. He guessed these lights were from the days of the building's construction to be still working even now. Something drew him forward, deep into the heart of the chamber. In the exact center of the room was a large circle of stone inlaid into the floor with a large pentagonal flagstone in the center. On that flagstone, a red cross shaped like a sword was carved. With a gasp of awe, he stepped forward and into the circle. 

The circle of stone glowed with an eerie light and five lines of blood shot from the circle to run parallel to the pentagonal flagstone's sides, forming a blood-traced star. The boy shuddered in fear and kneeled down. Tentatively, he reached out and lightly touched the sword carving. The entire center flagstone glowed intensely and transformed into a thick book.

Curiously, Fen picked it up and examined it. The book was heavy and had a dark purple cover. Gold filigree adorned the four corners of the cover and the spine. The mark of the red sword cross appeared on the cover. With a grin of satisfaction, he held it close to his chest and started for the stairs. Unfortunately, that was where his luck ran out.

A golden cat trod upon a dozing librarian with less than courteous targeting. This librarian's screech of pain woke up the others, just as Fen was leaving the main office. He was, of course, immediately spotted. The head librarian recognized the tome in the boy's arms and panicked.

The teenager felt no other remedy would do and promptly ran out the door with the librarians following en suit. But when he exited the door, a gigantic blue dragon loomed above him. It hissed, flaring its wings in the air and lowered its head so that it was close to the steps leading in. With a snap of its jaws at the librarians, the massive beast snatched the boy from the doorway and roared in triumph. Then, a flick of its tail and a storm-generating blast from the wings lifted the creature into the sky with its prize.

"What do you want?" screamed Fen, struggling in the massive claw as they soared away from Palanthas.

The dragon curved his head to regard him. "I am Silt. in my true form."

"Why do you care about me, great dragon?" the boy asked, curiosity sparkling in his eyes again.

The blue sighed sadly and banked to the east. "You were... a friend."

"I see," a pause. "Do me a favor, Silt. Find a grassy plain and land."

* * *

A wolf stalked the streets of Palanthas that night, hunting a prey that had eluded it for a long time. The raven black pelt seemed to absorb light as the purple-eyed hunter padded down the street. It passed a drunken man, it passed whores, and it passed gully dwarves. No one saw it pass; only pulling their scarves or rags around them, shivering as though a cold wind had passed by. Something was left in the wake of the wolf, something that lingered and festered. Something began to spread even as the black wolf continued hunting.

* * *

It had been a week since Fen had stolen the Book of the Apocalypse from the Great Library. Since then, the boy had been poring over the tome and its ceaseless riddles. Over and over again, he read the text and reviewed the drawings of countless deities. 

"Fen, you've got to eat something," Silt said, holding out a plate of bread as he entered the small cave they were hiding out in.

The teenager smiled suddenly, cruelly. "What news of the world?"

"The Plague has spread as far south as Port Balifor and hasn't crossed New Sea yet. Everyone's crops are dying and swarms of insects are finishing off what's left," the transformed dragon reported sullenly. "Have you found anything in that cursed book?"

The boy smiled softly and pointed to a passage. "Know this! I am the God of Death, the messiah of eternal silence! I am the cleanser of the universe and the price of War! Gather my shattered light and return me to rightful Guardianship of the gates to Hell."

"What is that?" asked the dragon, shivering in his human skin with nervousness.

Fen touched his finger to his chin. "It is a passage about a death god from another world who was cut into twenty-nine pieces for falling in love with a goddess of rebirth."

"How is that going to stop this disaster?" Silt demanded.

"Apocalypse."

"Whatever."

With a gentle tilt of his head, the boy sighed and patiently explained, "This particular death god is causing this by hunting for his missing piece."

"So," the dragon reasoned. "If we return his missing piece, then we're saved."

"Only, the piece is trapped within my body and the only way the death god will get it is if I'm dead."

"Shit."

The teenager nodded in agreement. "Quite. But I have a plan."

"Tell me!" the curious part of the dragon's brain was piqued.

Triumphantly, Fen turned to the second to last page. "I will summon the One Who Must Not Be Summoned. Read this description of her."

The dragon read silently, mouthing the words:

Delicate lady of slender light

Bringer of the shadowy night

Dark destroyer of all light

Wolf-girl of the heart

Hidden inside, dangerous art

Golden goddess from the dark

Brought from death reborn

Angel given new form

Dragon hearkens; she is dragon borne

Time forward and in reverse

Brought from deep within the earth

Herald of the last rebirth

World destroyer, star-borne night

Silent killer of starlight

Universal apocalypse of infinite bright

Destiny changed by her light.

Eternal end and eternal beginning

The hope of change for better

The return to life from future death

Destroyer Complete Death Ribbon,

Return to Eternity!

Trembling, the dragon looked at the boy with horror. "She is the universe killer!"

"Yes," the boy sighed. "So she is."

Silt shouted, "She will end existence if you call her!"

"I told you," the human grumbled. "I have a plan, but it's risky and sounds crazy. I'm going to give it a shot before the world ends, seeing as we have limited options as it is."

The dragon frowned and sulked, knowing that the human was right. "How long do we have until he comes for you?"

"He's already here."

* * *

The black wolf howled and paced as it waited outside the small cave. He watched as his prey exited with a dirty-blonde man following. He paced again, making the grass rustle at his invisible passing. 

"Show yourself," said the boy, clutching a large decorated tome to his chest.

A large black wolf appeared in front of them, deep purple eyes locked on the boy. It had a strange white ring of fur around its neck that plunged down slightly on its barrel chest. "You know that I am here?" the wolf said in an odd, disjointed voice that floated around them.

"If I give myself up to you, will you spare Krynn?" the boy asked.

The disjointed voice laughed as the wolf paced. "Don't be foolish! The rules of the hunt state that whatever planet that harbors a shard will die when the hunt comes to it."

"Then you will not get my life willingly." He stared at his hunter with stubborn fury.

Again, the disjointed voice chuckled, "You will die soon enough and I won't need your permission."

"I won't allow this planet to die," the boy stated and opened the large book. "Cover me, Silt."

The blonde man nodded and moved to stand in front of the teenager. "Just do what you have to."

The black wolf pummeled into the man, trying to tear flesh. The man fought back with superhuman strength, wrestling him into the ground and away from the target.

"I call to you, golden comet! Harbinger of destruction, come to me! Riddle's answer and puzzle, I call for your light of change!" the boy shouted.

A shriek of horror and pain came from the disjointed voice of the wolf. "No! The World Destroyer must not be summoned!"

Light burst from the pages of the book. A shape rose from the light, a golden smooth feminine shape. It was a tall woman, floating above them. Slowly, the golden sheen vanished, revealing the pale lady that was the bringer of the complete death. Her white hair was pulled up by a red ribbon and into a softly curling ponytail that trailed down to her waist. Her delicate face was framed with her curling white hair. A red ribbon circled her neck with a tiny white rabbit on it. A golden tiara, inlaid with three blood red gems, ran across her forehead. Her perfect ears had three earrings each and she was a vision of oddity with her white dress and black boots. She slowly opened her steel-blue eyes with their long dark lashes and regarded her summoner.

"You have called me, Fenris," she said in a chiming voice. "What do you wish of me?"

The death god howled, "You have no right to listen to him, Destroyer!"

"He has called me as a mortal," the woman said, her pale face tilting towards the creature. "It is still his right."

Snarling, the black wolf leapt for the boy. But instead of connecting with the flesh of his prey, he slammed into the blonde man. Instinct prevailed and the wolf tore at the man's stomach with his hind paws. The man roared in pain and threw the assailant off of him. Then, he fell back onto the grass.

"Silt! Are you okay?" Fen asked, kneeling next to his wounded friend.

The man coughed up blood and placed his hand over his wound. "Don't give up, kid."

"Silt, I'm sorry," the black-haired boy said sadly, holding the free hand of his friend.

The transformed dragon smiled as his eyes grew unfocused. "Don't be. I'm only sorry that I won't see you succeed," he said, tracing a bloody finger down the cheek of the teenager. "Win for me, love." Then, he closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath. He breathed no more.

With a deep breath, the boy stood. Tears and dragon's blood ran down his face. "Destroyer, come close. I have my wish."

"As you will," she replied, floating down to the ground. She leaned forward and put her finger against her lips, waiting. He whispered into her ear his deepest wish, even as the death god watched in curiosity. The woman pulled back and stared deep into the boy's purple eyes with her penetrating steel-blue orbs. "Are you sure this is what you desire?"

The boy nodded. "Yes."

"Do you understand the consequences?"

He nodded again. "Yes."

"What will you sacrifice to me for this boon?"

He looked up at her with tears in his eyes. "I give you my most valued possession: my life."

The Destroyer nodded in satisfaction and embraced Fen in a hug. Her hands moved up to his shoulders as she locked her eyes onto his. One hand slid up the boy's neck. She snapped his neck quickly, pulling his body close to hers as he went limp.

A small glowing crystal fell from the boy's mouth and floated in the air. It spun slowly, a small blood red hexagon with a mysterious sheen. The black wolf's skin shivered and shimmered as it stretched and transformed. A man with chestnut hair in a long braid walked forward, his lips twisted into a wolfish smile of triumph. His eyes were lined with black paint in thin lines and he wore all black. He grabbed the spinning crystal. "This planet will die, you know, Claudia," he hissed to the Destroyer.

The woman frowned and vanished with the body of the boy. "So will you," her whisper echoed from the emptiness where she had been.

The man laughed heartily and glanced around. "I doubt it, accursed lame one!" he shouted, into the air. Smoothing out his black clothing, he cast a look at the sky and swallowed the hexagonal crystal. Energy glowed around him and spread in waves away from him. The ground trembled and shook. Slabs of rock began to lift with the power of this energy he possessed. He forced a fragment of that energy beneath him and propelled himself into the sky, soaring higher and higher until he had pierced the atmosphere.

"This troublesome rock must go!" he snorted with displeasure, streaking above the single moon and turning to face the planet. He held out his hand, palm facing the planet and closed his eyes. Light swirled in front of his palm and then formed a sphere of bright green light. "DIE!" he shouted, eyes blazing with green fire. The sphere turned into a beam of light that streaked into the very heart of Krynn. An intense rumble emanated from the planet and it exploded, spewing fire along streams of air into the void of space. The moon fragmented with the concussive force of the explosion.

In the midst of it all was the death god, laughing with delight. "The death god has returned!" he shouted into the universe. He soared over a twenty-kilometer fragment of the moon and experimentally punched it. It shattered, spewing tiny pieces into space. He laughed again, "I'm at full power!"

Something caught his eye among the shattered planetary fragments. It was a body that floated in space without any apparent damage to it. He drew closer to the blue-clad body and spun it around. It was the body of the boy who held his last shard. "Shit!" the god howled as he now sensed the presence of the Destroyer. He turned to see her floating in space above him.

The woman closed her steel blue eyes and held her arm above her head, her hand open to the sky. A wooden staff appeared in her hand in a burst of golden light, crowned with a silver crystal clutched in a golden dragon's claw. She spun it around in her hands and then smiled with satisfaction at the weight.

"Itai! Claudia! Do not do it!" the death god shouted. "The universe still has time!"

She cocked her head at this and leveled the staff's head at him. "Time has run out for this existence. Destiny has decreed it."

"That can't be right! It's not fair!" he protested.

She sighed, "No, it is not." Then, she raised the staff above her and shouted, "Shockwave Pulsar!" The crystal on the staff glowed brightly and she brought the staff down. A bright white light burst from the crystal, quickly encompassing all.

"No!" the final shriek of the death god, pierced the light as it bathed him in its intensity.

The light was now gone, leaving only Claudia in the void of space. The death god's corpse floated alone, his face reflecting fear and horror. The Destroyer turned, watching as all the stars in the distance winked out until darkness enveloped the entire existence. "Shirak," whispered the woman, the crystal in her staff lighting.

She smiled, floating in that endless darkness of dead space with only the crystal's illumination, and soared over to the death god's corpse. No decay. She floated to bodies of other things and touched them lightly. Again, no decay. She looked out, into the endless beyond, and smiled. Time had stopped as it was supposed to.

Claudia lifted her staff and shouted, "Black Hole! Gather all the light!" The crystal grew dark and light began to seep towards it. Then, streams of brilliance shot out of the darkness and into the crystal, light from all of existence gathering in this silver stone. Soon, there was no more light to gather. The infinite light had gathered within the heart of the crystal and glowed with an eerie incandescence.

The Destroyer swirled her staff and then brought it down. "Light of all Infinite, pierce the veil of time! Answer the wish!"

Light burst from the staff and blanketed everything.

* * *

Claudia opened her eyes in the shadowy outer space. Before her, a set of large gates stood, guarding the gateway to a star system. The gates opened as a large crystal started to exit. Suddenly, the crystal shattered into twenty-nine pieces. The Destroyer reached forward and grabbed one that she recognized. "Hello, Fenris," she said with a smile. She glared at the other crystals, "Go on, now! Go to your new home planet! He will be behind you." 

The crystals spun and shimmered, streaking into the distance and finally vanishing. She once again turned to glance at the crystal in her hand. "Shouldn't you generate a body?" she suggested. The stone glowed brightly with a ruddy light that expanded and solidified into the form of a baby with black fuzz on its head and big purple eyes.

She held up the naked baby boy and frowned. "That won't do, Fenris. You can't go around naked," she chided. He merely giggled and clapped his tiny hands merrily. She made a gesture with her finger and a white blanket appeared, floating to her feet. With a deft maneuver, she placed the baby onto the blanket and swaddled him in it.

"I have just the planet for you, dear Fenris," she whispered, holding him close to her chest. Silver wings spilled from her shoulders and she spread them wide. With a swift beat, the wings pushed her into the cosmic currents. Gliding like a bird in the wind, she flew on towards a shining light in the distance.

They passed a lonely dark planet with a small moon. A gravity swell told them there was another planet here as well, only further in orbit. They passed a pale blue planet with a ring around it and a mess of moons. Again, a gravity swell spoke of a planet having passage along this route. Soon they passed gigantic red and white planet with a small ring and many moons. "I've been to this system," Claudia said. "It has nine planets, unlike that of Krynn. But the light of life has vanished from eight of them."

The baby gurgled and pointed to a gigantic belt of pulverized rock.

"That used to be a planet," she explained. "It was destroyed a long time ago."

Eventually, they soared into view of a blue planet with only a few landmasses on it and a single pockmarked moon. In the space around it, metal wheels spun in clusters. "This is new," the Destroyer mused as she passed the odd spinning structures. She continued towards the planet, soaring down into the atmosphere.

Shortly, she returned from the surface of the planet and turned to regard it again. "This is your new home, Fenris. Your wish has been granted. The death god has no reason to destroy Krynn now. You've saved her from destruction. Live your new life well." Then, the winged woman turned and flew towards her home, far away, in another galaxy. "I will remember you for all of Krynn," she whispered, soaring towards the planet of which she had just spoken.

* * *

_Sonata for a Wanderer Part II_

Then the past met future

Collided with a furious passion

And the complete death settled over all

The time stops

The goddess raises her staff

And destiny

Is changed

Time Resumes

As she tilts her hourglass right again

The sand flowing down

Towards the ultimate death,

The return to eternity.

* * *

The television blared, "In Local news, eighteen-year old Zachary Meir was killed by a drunk driver." The screen filled with the picture of a boy with short black hair and eerie purple eyes. It then switched back the reporter, who continued, "He leaves behind his foster parents and a girlfriend. It was expected that he would continue on to join the elite..." 

The remote clicked the television off. The young man put it down and sighed as he reached into his pocket. He withdrew a ruddy red crystal with some dried blood on it and smiled. "Zachary Meir, welcome home," he whispered and popped the crystal into his mouth, swallowing it. Then, the man stood and stretched. Grabbing a pizza box as he left the room, he brushed his long chestnut braid off of his shoulder and onto his back.

The man smiled as he shoved the box in the garbage and looked out the window into the starry night sky with his eerie purple eyes. "The death god lives again," he said.

End.

* * *

AN: The poems are written by me. Claudia's passage is called "World's End". My teachers in high school really liked these poems. They made me write a collection. Oo; Anyway, I've moved the end notes for this to my homepage. Also, I added a little text here and there that clarifies that the Death God mentioned in this is alien to Krynn. Claudia herself is an angel. 


End file.
